Active TopicsActive Topics  Display List of Forum MembersMemberlist  CalendarCalendar  Search The ForumSearch  HelpHelp
  RegisterRegister  LoginLogin
Other Topics
 Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board :Producing Theater :Other Topics
Message Icon Topic: Advice on the use of a ?pen name?(Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post Reply Post New Topic
Page  of 2 Next >>
Author Message
Playwright
Celebrity
Celebrity
Avatar

Joined: 4/01/06
Location: Canada
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 126
bullet Topic: Advice on the use of a ?pen name?
    Posted: 8/27/06 at 11:28am

Hey,    

     I recently attended my first Fringe play.  Wouldn't have gone to see it except the leading man from my last play was in it.  The play was an interesting one.  The two leads performacnes (not my friend, thankfullly)  were lack-lustre and carried no depth.  There wasn't any layers to the characters at all. It was just actors saying lines.  It would have been an entirely different play had the leads been cast differently.

Anyway, I've been thinking of writing a fringe play.  You know, going way outside of my usual genre and comfort zone.

    Well as it happens, and I know this sounds crazy, a play came to me in a dream last night.  The entire thing basically I dreamed like it was actually on stage.  And boy oh boy, is it way, way outside of my confort zone. 

   It's so different from what I write that it will shock people I know. It's somewhat graphic in parts. I have no idea where this play came from becasue its topic is not based on anything that happened to me. At least not that I'm consciously aware of.

     I'm sure it would be accpted at this fringe festvial.  I know I can cast it. Only two characters.  I'm thinking, if I go ahead with this, I might do it under a pen name so nobody willl know it's me. 

     This play could generate a lot of press and I'm not sure how that would reflect on my other works.  I have a certain fan base and I'm sure that 99% of them would not approve of this new play. I guess most of them wouldn't see it so if I use a pen name they would never know.  But it just might reflect back on me, you know?

IP IP Logged
castMe
Celebrity
Celebrity
Avatar

Joined: 11/02/05
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 206
bullet Posted: 8/27/06 at 12:00pm
Sondra, I see no reason not to use an alias or pen name if you so wish.  It's a time honored tradition to not use one's real name when crediting a work.  Steven King becomes Richard Bachman, Evan Hunter wrote as Ed McBain (and others), Agatha Christie used the name Mary Westmacott for romance novels and, my favorite assumed name, Dav Pilkey (who wrote Captain Underpants) used the name Sue Denim (pseudonym). 

Anagram your name, use the name of a favorite literary character or pick a name from the phone book for your alter-ego, other-genre play. Whatever strikes your fancy.
(check out   http://www.writing-world.com/basics/pseudonym.shtml

One thought, though..........don't assume you will be able to remain anonymus forever. 
Investigate. Imagine. Choose.
IP IP Logged
castMe
Celebrity
Celebrity
Avatar

Joined: 11/02/05
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 206
bullet Posted: 8/27/06 at 12:26pm
addenda to the above post....


My lovely, talented and brilliant wife informs me that in French "sous" (pronounced "sue") means "under"

therefore, the psuedonym Sue Denim is not only a homonym but also a play on words in two languages since underpants are often found "under denim".

You gotta love that name!   (and my wife)
Investigate. Imagine. Choose.
IP IP Logged
Topper
Celebrity
Celebrity
Avatar

Joined: 1/27/05
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 543
bullet Posted: 8/27/06 at 1:10pm

Favorite pen names:

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)

Ellery Queen (Frederick Dannay & Manfred B. Lee)

William Shakespeare (Edward De Vere)

 

(Okay, so maybe that last one has never been proven, but I just thought I'd toss it in to the mix.)

BTW the author of "Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage" is credited as being Jane Martin.  However, nobody has ever seen her, met her or interviewd her.  It's obviously a pseudonym that has been keep secret.

"None of us really grow up. All we ever do is learn how to behave in public." -- Keith Johnstone
IP IP Logged
castMe
Celebrity
Celebrity
Avatar

Joined: 11/02/05
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 206
bullet Posted: 8/27/06 at 1:17pm
Yes, Topper, I meant to mention Jane Martin since the others I named are authors and Martin has written a number of plays.  It is a well-known fact "Jane Martin" is a pen name, but only a few people associated with the Actors Theatre of Louisville actually know who he/ she is.  And they're not talking.  The oft-repeated rumor (I learned from a director who worked there) is that Jane Martin is two people (ala Ellery Queen). 
Investigate. Imagine. Choose.
IP IP Logged
tristanrobin
Celebrity
Celebrity
Avatar

Joined: 4/25/05
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 704
bullet Posted: 8/27/06 at 3:18pm
I've heard that Jane Martin is actually several different authors.

Particularly interesting, as when you read through a collection of her plays,
they don't read as if written by different people!

I love a good mystery! LOL

I traveled for a year playing the man in her "Travelin' Show" - and kept trying
to get information on her - and I didn't get a damn thing LOL.
IP IP Logged
castMe
Celebrity
Celebrity
Avatar

Joined: 11/02/05
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 206
bullet Posted: 8/27/06 at 3:36pm
Tristan...that's wonderful.  I hadn't heard the numerous author theory, but it makes sense when you concider the multiple monologues she's(?) produced.  I've directed Talking With once and would do it again in a heart beat. 

Maybe we could get Don Foster on the case.  He is a forensic literary expert who unmasked Joe Klein as the author of "Primary Colors".  Foster claims that, like fingerprints and DNA, we each have one thing that distinguishes us from everyone else.  Although we may disguise our handwritting or type rather than write or print, we have only one vocabulary and given a large enough body of work with which to compare, he may be able to discern who an anonymus author might be.  Check out Foster's "Author Unknown"  I found it fascinating.
Investigate. Imagine. Choose.
IP IP Logged
slicksister
Celebrity
Celebrity
Avatar

Joined: 3/20/04
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 105
bullet Posted: 8/28/06 at 1:16am
This is a cool thread.  A subject of which I have no knowledge but  interesting none the less!
The Main Thing is to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
IP IP Logged
Gaafa
Celebrity
Celebrity
Avatar

Joined: 3/21/04
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1181
bullet Posted: 8/28/06 at 9:48am
Originally posted by Topper

Favorite pen names:

William Shakespeare (Edward De Vere)

(Okay, so maybe that last one has never been proven, but I just thought I'd toss it in to the mix.)

 Actually your probably not that far wrong  Topper!
As there is a strong belief that the works are attributed to Marlowe, Greene & others. Except Old Bill got a scribe to stick his name on the works & never ventured more then a 100 miles or so out side of London or left England at all.

      Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

IP IP Logged
Shatcher
Celebrity
Celebrity
Avatar

Joined: 2/21/05
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 251
bullet Posted: 8/28/06 at 10:11am
When ever I am asked (forced) to act in a show I always use a different name. Don't want people to think I've crossed over to the light side!!
IP IP Logged
Page  of 2 Next >>
Post Reply Post New Topic
Printable version Printable version

Forum Jump
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

Bulletin Board Software by Web Wiz Forums version 8.05
Copyright ©2001-2006 Web Wiz Guide
buy generic cialis are in line cialis canada outcome for yourself viagra sales cost saving benefit viagra uk convert your buy phentermine online pay phentermine cod payment Lenders Everything xanax online your existing xanax overnight absolute must free incest stories online The value gay incest advance The key free dog sex pics cash flow dog sex the reduced noise free gay college guys of the period gay guys